Sir Alex Ferguson supports Labour and says David Cameron’s policies are ‘about helping his own sort’

Outside, his millionaire superstars are being put through their paces by assistant manager Mike Phelan.

Outside, his millionaire superstars are being put through their paces by assistant manager Mike Phelan.

Sir Alex Ferguson keeps half an eye on them from his Carrington training ground office as he sits back in his chair, sips from his “AhcumfaeGovan” mug, and reflects on the final days of the battle ahead.

We’re down to the last stages now, and though the blues are in front, no one’s quite sure how it’s all going to pan out, and Fergie is as enthralled as anyone. Not the battle for the Premier League title, it’s the general election that’s got the Manchester United boss buzzing.

“It’s squeaky bum time for David Cameron,” he says, adapting one of his most famous football expressions to what is happening on the political battlefield he always follows closely.

“What was the old Harold Wilson saying – a week is a long time in politics? My God, it must have been a long few days for Cameron.

“There he is, coasting along, everyone talking about how it’s all over, and suddenly it’s like he’s been leading the table all season and he’s gone four defeats on the trot.”

It was the first TV debate that saw Cameron falter, and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg exploit the fall. “I must be honest, I don’t quite see this Clegg thing. I mean he was fine, and spoke well enough but I was no clearer what he was about than I was at the beginning.

“I thought Gordon was solid and strong and reliable, so that all fits. But I thought Cameron looked really weak under pressure and that is the last thing you want in a Prime Minister.”

Fergie and I talk football and politics regularly, and I’ve been aware for some time that he is of the view that Cameron’s posh background is “totally fair game” in the campaign.

“How can it be class war to say the guy went to Eton, or that he was part of some dreadful right-wing social club at Oxford? Where you come from does matter you know. His policies are about helping his own sort.

“I have never forgotten my roots and my basic beliefs are the same now as they were back growing up in Govan and then working as a toolmaker.

“I may have had success and made a lot of money but I still have the same basic view of the world.

“Have Labour been perfect? Of course not. Have there been things I disagreed with? Yes, from time to time. But I know where the Labour Party’s heart is and it is in the right place.”

After the 3-1 win over Spurs, he threw a party for eight Glaswegians he has known since those Govan days, when they played in the same boys’ club team.

“They were down with their wives, came to the match, good game, then we had a night out, dinner and a few drinks, good banter, karaoke, great night, and you’d have loved it – because every single one of them was staunch Labour back then, and staunch Labour now.

“And do you know what? I felt incredibly proud that we’ve all gone on and done different things with our lives, but when we get together like that, we’re all still basically the same kind of people with the same kind of beliefs. And our politics is part of that. It makes me laugh – well, no, it annoys me actually, the way some people think if you get lots of success, you ought to be a Tory. It’s rubbish. You can be well off and still believe the same things as when you were growing up in a working class family.

“I believe Labour has always been the party of the working man and always will be. I believe the Tories have always been about looking after their own rich types and always will be.

“My loyalty to Labour is a part of who I am because I know what they do for people. Ever since it was founded Labour has fought for ordinary working people and it does that just as much today.”

He was as excited as anyone when Labour first got re-elected in 1997, constantly giving bits of advice during the campaign, calling to find out what the private polls were saying, even calling on election night itself to warn me that Tony Blair and I were being filmed through a half open curtain live on TV.

And he has very little truck with the idea that Labour’s record since then is not one worth shouting about. “When you manage a football club you see all parts of the country. And I tell you, this country is miles better for having had a Labour government these past years. A lot better. Look at Glasgow, Manchester, look at any of our towns and cities. Of course there are problems but for heaven’s sake let’s keep it in perspective.

“People have done well out of Labour, and it is a better country than it was. No doubt.” A former shop steward, he says he was always political, but his politics was really fired when his mother was taken ill and he was appalled at the state of the hospital in which she was treated, under a Tory government.

“It was the Southern General in Glasgow and she was dying. It was just after I took over at United. The hospital was falling apart for lack of funding, the cladding was hanging off the pipes and the staff were dreadfully over-worked. Labour said they would save the NHS. And they have.

“Just as the schools are better too. Surely people aren’t going to throw that away on the back of Cameron’s slogans or Nick Clegg doing OK on a TV show?” Where he is full of praise for fellow Scot Gordon Brown is over the PM’s handling of the global economic crisis. “My God, you would not want that kind of thing landing on your plate. He and Alistair Darling did brilliantly.”

He also thinks the banking crisis has weakened any appeal the SNP had. “I think it showed how wrong they are to think Scotland would be better off going it alone. I think most Scottish people would recognise that the decisions Gordon took during that crisis were right for Scotland as well as England. I’ve always believed Scotland is better off as part of the United Kingdom.”

Momentum is a big thing in sport, as it is in politics, and he thinks Cameron has lost the momentum he needed.

“You see it in racing sometimes when the frontrunner just hits a wall and there’s nothing left in the tank.

“Or that time Newcastle United were 12 points ahead and we chased them down and overtook them. You need real character and nerve to win from the front, and he doesn’t seem to have it.”

His record as a talent scout has no equal. So does Clegg have staying power? “I don’t know,” he says, drawing on a football comparison. “Sometimes you throw on a young kid into a big game and they have a great debut, the press want to know all about him.

“But that fuss can be counter-productive and often you find they aren’t quite ready for it. You need to find out if they are strong enough to do it over the whole piece. In the big games you tend to go for your experienced heads, the players you know can handle pressure.”

Title run-ins are all about pressure and Fergie is a master at relieving it from his own team and loading it on to others. How is Gordon handling it?

“It’s difficult when you’ve been the one in office for a long while but I admire his resilience,” he said. “He just keeps going and he’s right to keep reminding people it’s all about the economy. I think the other two would be out of their depth.

“George Osborne is the MP for Tatton so we see a bit of him around here and I’m really not sure about him at all. I’d take Gordon and Darling against Cameron and Osborne any day of the week.

“Gordon’s got that attention to detail, he can see the dangers and opportunities ahead. He is a serious guy and that’s what you want in a leader in these times. The behaviour of those bankers was appalling,” he says.

“I think Gordon said they were ‘morally bankrupt’ and people agree with that. Labour got to grips with the banks and they are taxing these bonuses, which is right. I don’t think the Tories were as tough about it somehow.”

He added: “With footballers today, I’m always trying to keep their feet on the ground. Gordon is telling bankers they’ve got responsibilities to the wider world too. Gordon showed a cool head during that banking crisis and that was very important because we were really close to a meltdown.”

So who’s going to win?

“It’s fascinating,” he says. “It looked like a three-horse race in the Premiership until Arsenal lost to Spurs and Wigan. But usually people drop away in the stretch and these races come down to the big two. That’s certainly the way UK politics has gone in my lifetime. I still think this has a way to run.” He doesn’t want Britain to act like an itchy-trigger football chairman, ditching a manager after going through a bad patch. He says: “It’s the clubs that stick by their managers, that let them build for the future and leave a real legacy, that are usually the most successful.” He should know.

It could be one of the worst weeks of his life. May 6, Labour lose the election. May 9, Chelsea lift the title. He smiles. “Aye, and it might be one of the best weeks of my life. Because Chelsea can still slip up. And so can the Tories.